Alibaba, Ant Financial, SAIF executives join Paytm E-commerce board

Paytm E-commerce has rolled out exclusive brands and has initiated partnerships for its offline to online programme under the Paytm Mall initiative.Payal Ganguly | ET Bureau | April 29, 2017, 09:56 IST

The platform had recently raised $177 million from Alibaba in March and also counts Chinese ecommerce giants payment affiliate Ant Financial as a key investor.Paytm E-commerce, the online marketplace spun off from mobile wallet and payment player Paytm owner One 97 Communications, has appointed SAIF Partner’s Ravi Adusumalli and four employees from investor Alibaba on the board of directors, according to filings made with Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

They will be joining the founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Paytm vice-president Amit Sinha on the board. Paytm E-commerce, which operates Paytm Mall, will now have a seven-member board.

The new members on the board include Alibaba Group’s senior director of finance Jason Pak Tung Yip; secretary and general counsel at Alibaba Group Holding Timothy A Steinert; former director of Alibaba.com Europe and present executive director at Alibaba Entrepreneurs Hong Kong Mei Ki Cindy Chow Lok and CEO of Alibaba’s payments subsidiary Ant Financials Jing Xiandong.

Ravi Adusumalli of SAIF Partners will represent the investment firm at Paytm E-commerce as the director. Paytm Ecommerce has started rolling out multiple initiatives to revive the marketplace, which saw a lull ahead of being carved out as a separate company.

The platform has rolled out exclusive brands and has initiated partnerships for its offline to online programme under the Paytm Mall initiative.